22 September 2015

My Hair Story: Irresistible Me Hair Extensions Review

I'm not sure if people know this about me, but hair is a Pretty Big Deal. I've been consistently weak about not going for the big chop but have also spent the past six years bemoaning my lack of long hair.

So when I got contacted by Irresistible Me to review their hair extensions, I definitely got interested. The ability to reach my mermaid hair goals without years of growing it out? YES PLEASE.

To make this post a little more interesting, and to actually add "blogging" instead of just "advertising," I decided to tell you a little story. Of my hair. Don't worry though, I'll definitely talk about the extensions!

During my last few years of high school, I consistently kept my hair somewhere between a pixie and a bob. It wasn't that good a look, so by the end of high school I'd started growing it out. I didn't cut it until May 2014, I got tired of it and chopped it into a bob.

I've been growing it out since then, only giving myself a trim and some layers back in March I think. I've stopped cutting my bangs and also switched my part, but thanks to selfie cam mirroring you can't tell!

You can also see my eyebrows transform.

So now, my hair's at a length I'd consider long but it's nowhere near the mermaid hair length I can only dream of. Enter Irresistible Me hair extensions, which are easy-to-use clip-in extensions. They come in two variations, the Silky Touch and Royal Remy. Both are supposed to be 100% natural and real hair, meaning that you can style them how you would your real hair, even with heat.

One of the things I was most worried about was whether the extensions would match my hair colour. While I've never dyed my hair, there's been a lot of sun damage in the past couple of years leading to some stark highlights under certain lighting.

Sunlight gives me blonde highlights. I blurred the background so you can't see the mess, but otherwise no edits!

So after watching their colour guide video, I settled on Chocolate Brown. I was then sent the Irresistible Me Royal Remy 20", 200g extensions in that colour.

There was a big hoopla with customs refusing to clear the shipment, which led to me rejecting the package and sending it back. It eventually arrived about three weeks later, much to my surprise. But hey, I promised a review and a review I will do!

The extensions come in a pretty black cardboard box. Mine got crushed during shipping, since this came from China then went back and forth. The hair itself comes in a two-compartment ziploc bag, where the smaller side holds a test strip for colour-matching. Unfortunately for me, even if I wanted to return the package, I couldn't because someone (I assume customs) opened the left side for me. Anyway...

Here's what my hair looks like, all washed, dried and brushed out. (My hair is uneven because I cut it myself...)

And here's what the extensions look like once they're in! I'm not wearing all of the pieces; I've left out a 3-clip piece and a 2-clip piece. But look at how ~long and voluminous~ that is! Mermaid hair goals achieved!

There's definitely weight to it, and a quick volume comparison showed that the extensions easily triple my natural hair volume. There's a lot of hair here! I found that it's much easier to blend if I start off with pin-straight hair. Then, curling everything together helps disguise the transition if more help is needed.

About the colour match, Chocolate Brown matches my hair's overall colour and undertone really well. Unfortunately, my highlights are a lot brighter than the extensions' reflectance and so in direct sunlight it's really easy to spot the difference.

In terms of quality, these extensions come silky smooth and feels luxurious as if they belonged on someone who actually takes care of their hair. I test-washed a strip to see how it'd react with shampoo, conditioner and a blowdry. Only one strand of hair came out during that, which is sooo much more than I can say for my own hair. But like real hair, blowdrying with heat dries out the hair a bit.

Some things to note are that I found a couple of grey hairs in the extensions, as well as some split ends. I guess that makes them more realistic? Also, on the 4-clip piece, some of the threads used to sew it together were loose and hung among the hair. Not really a problem since the top of that piece is always hidden.

As much as I love having the option to switch up my hair with these extensions, I will be passing them onto my sister because they're a gorgeous match for her hair colour, much better than they were for me.

You can find more on the Irresistible Me website. The extensions come in a huge range of colours (I'm wondering if the Medium Brown would have given me the perfect match, but alas). They also offer a range of products, not just the extensions.